Recorded live at Teagle Machinery in Truro, Cornwall, the first-ever Vocational Celebration Day shines a spotlight on vocational training across the UK.

Steph McGovern, a former apprentice herself, chats to apprentices from all around the UK to celebrate and promote the value of the ‘hard hat’ and all those taking forging their careers using a vocational pathway. Apprentices from sectors including engineering, HR, data science, transport planning, banking, sales and more share their journeys, challenges, and ambitions.

In the studio, Steph also chats to Niki Storey, Group Strategy & Transformation Director at Enginuity and Alexia Williams MBE, Technical Lead at Rolls-Royce and an Enginuity Trustee, about the importance of vocational skills and why Vocational Celebration Day was created. 

Steph also meets Carrie Childs from the Cornwall Careers Hub, who shares how their work is helping to reduce NEET rates across the local area.  

Hosted at Teagle Machinery Ltd, Steph meets some of the apprentices on-site who make up 20% of the company’s work force and chats to Richard Berryman, Manufacturing Director at Teagle, about ways they are encouraging the apprentices to take on new responsibilities, including taking over parts of the factory on Fridays. 

Messages of support also come from the Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith, Enginuity’s CEO Ann Watson MBE, EAL’s Managing Director Alison Parkes, and Phil Smith CBE, Chair of Skills England.

Plus, there’s a special performance from Adam Lyons & ‘The Paintshop Boys’ 

To watch the episode in full visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTauncd43LI

00:00 Welcome to Vocational Celebration Day

00:45 Inside Teagle Machinery

01:32 Meet the Apprentices

02:23 Message from Ann Watson MBE, CEO of Enginuity

04:55 Why Vocational Matters with Niki Storey and Alexia Williams MBE

11:19 Amazon Apprentice Olivia Lane

15:45 Audience Apprentices’ Stories

19:11 Factory Flashdance Moment with Adam Lyons & ‘The Paintshop Boys’

21:02 Apprentice Ambassador Network in London

26:33 Message from the Skills Minister, Jacqui Smith

29:27 Teagle Apprentices in Action

33:45 Cornwall Tackles NEETs

35:48 Careers Skills and Networks

38:56 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the West Midlands

43:23 EAL Backs Vocational Routes

45:42 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the North East

51:45 Message from Phil Smith CBE, Skills England

53:46 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the North West

59:50 Lloyds Banking Group Apprentices in Edinburgh

01:02:06 Closing Thanks and Celebration Song

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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Steph interviews Dame Ruth Cairnie DBE, Chair of Babcock International Group, patron of the Women in Defence Charter, member of the CBI Board and venture capital investor with a distinguished international career in the engineering sector.

Dame Ruth talks about Babcock’s role as an international defence contractor and major UK employer, contributing an estimated £4.3bn to the UK economy, and shares her thoughts on skills, culture, and teamwork, outlining the wide range of workforce needs - Babcock will require around 8,000 more UK hires over the next five years - and how company is approaching its talent recruitment.

Steph and Dame Ruth also discuss shifting perceptions of defence needs and a change in the understanding of nuclear initiatives, the role of the UK Nuclear Skills Charter, the importance of diversity, retention and progression within the workforce and the community initiatives Babcock are championing to support their talent supply chain. 

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:27 What Babcock Does

01:45 Why Skills Matter

03:04 Roles and Career Paths

04:53 Early Careers Pipeline

07:02 Supporting SMEs Supply Chain

08:25 Nuclear Skills Push

09:55 Defence and Nuclear Perception Shift

11:59 Community Skills Partnerships

14:28 Making Careers Tangible

16:12 Skills Gap Challenges

16:43 New Routes into Trades

19:52 Pre Apprenticeships and NEETs

21:45 Immigration and Resourcing

23:04 Diversity and Inclusion

25:05 Ruth Career Journey

27:23 Facing Bias and Advice

29:03 Final Takeaways and Wrap Up

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A recent report from SQW, a leading UK-based consultancy specialising in economic and social research, which was commissioned by Enginuity, estimates the skills gap is costing the sector about £5.2bn each year. 

Steph is joined by Cathryn Moses-Stone, Senior Policy and Public Affairs for Enginuity, and entrepreneur and former SME managing director James Greenham, to discuss this new research and dig into the realities that this economic impact is having on manufacturing and engineering SMEs.

00:00 Welcome and Guests

00:42 Why Measure the Skills Gaps?

02:35 The Reality of Hiring as an SME

04:58 The £5.2 Billion Black Hole

06:23 Productivity and Apprenticeships

07:45 SME Constraints

10:12 Navigating Skills Reform

12:48 Grants and R&D Tax Credits

14:07 Fixing Vocational Education

14:52 Networks and Final Takeaways

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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Steph is joined by Phil Smith CBE, Chair of Skills England, and Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity, to discuss Skills England’s recently published Annual Skills Report which sets out the key challenges facing England’s skills system and actions for how they can be addressed.

They also chat about the industrial strategy’s growth sectors, potential opportunities over the next 5–10 years, pathways for moving between sectors and how to tackle the NEET challenge of about a million young people who are not in education, earning or training. 

00:00 Welcome

00:17 What is Skills England?

03:58 How Job Titles create Gender Bias

06:12 Work Experience Changes Minds

08:05 Manufacturing Hidden in Plain Sight

09:17 Skills England Annual Report Insights

12:07 Essential Skills in the AI Era

14:24 Creativity and Hands On Learning

15:48 Skills Classification and Passports

16:34 The NEETs Challenge

16:58 Recognising Hidden Strengths

20:09 AI Confidence Story

23:38 SME Skills Struggles

27:55 Skills England Wishlist

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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Steph chats with Kathryn Marshall, Senior Apprenticeship and T Level Manager at Lloyds Banking Group, to challenge the misconception that apprenticeships are mainly for engineering and manufacturing. 

With Lloyds Banking Group employing over 1,300 apprentices across more than 30 disciplines, Kathryn explains the breadth of roles on offer such as audit, digital, data, software engineering and cybersecurity.

Kathryn dispels the myth that you need maths qualifications to work in banking, revealing the only role where A-level Maths is a requirement, and sharing which skills matter more than subjects studied.

Steph and Kathryn also discuss the way AI is impacting jobs, as Kathryn outlines how Lloyds’ AI Academy is helping its 60,000 colleagues and the ways their youth outreach is aligning with their purpose of ‘helping Britain prosper’.  

00:00 Apprenticeships Beyond Engineering

01:24 Routes into Banking Careers

02:29 Actuarial and Audit Explained

06:28 School Outreach and Awareness

07:20 Digital and Tech Apprenticeships

10:00 Who Thrives as an Apprentice

11:01 Networking and Squiggly Careers

14:01 Standing Out in Applications

20:13 Family Journeys and No False Starts

23:31 AI Academy and Future Skills

25:31 Purpose and Community Outreach

27:13 Key Takeaways and Goodbye

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Steph meets Laura McBrown, Managing Director of G&B, an electronic manufacturing service provider, who has been running the family business with her sister, Kate, for the past 11 years. 

Laura explains how she got into the industry entirely by accident but loved the creativity and diverse range of roles so much that it inspired her to study electrical engineering.

She shares the story behind her father founding the company during the recession of the later 1980s and how the business has grown since that time, now serving the defence, aerospace, medical, and other highly regulated sectors. 

Laura discusses how she and her sister are shaping the culture of the business, why team morale matters and how they approach recruitment in the face of a sector wide skills shortage. 

00:00 Welcome

00:28 Family Business Origins

01:24 Industry Shift to Manufacturing

04:06 Learning on the Job

08:02 Proving Leadership and Culture

09:51 Business Today and Growth Goals

10:57 Skills Pipeline Challenge

12:20 National Manufacturing Day Tours

15:08 Making Outreach Work for Business

17:39 Building Confidence and Upskilling

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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In this episode, Steph is finding out about the thriving engineering and manufacturing sector in Cornwall.

First up, she meets Eric Nicholls, Chair of the Cornwall Manufacturing Group, whose members employ about 4,000 people with a combined turnover of roughly £600m. 

He explains how the area’s mining heritage provided roots for what is now a diverse offering of manufactured products and services, and how a close working relationship with local colleges has significantly transformed the skills.

At Watson Marlow, Head of Manufacturing Engineering Neil Bury describes how his own career path took him from starting as an apprentice to his current role in senior leadership, which included restarting as an apprentice as part of strategic leadership qualification.  

Matt Newman is another employee with Watson Marlow, who has recently embarked on a Project Management secondment. Matt outlines how a two-year engineering course when he was younger, swayed his career decision and lead to an apprenticeship in machining. He also tells Steph why he has been keen to continue learning as his career progressed and how that led to being named Management Apprentice of the Year 2024.

00:00 Welcome to Cornwall

00:20 Cornwall Manufacturing Snapshot

01:45 Heritage and Skills Shift

03:19 Collaboration with Local Colleges

04:30 Why Manufacturing Matters

05:34 Inside Watson Marlow

06:21 Neil’s Apprentice Journey

08:07 Leadership Apprenticeships Today

12:53 Work Life in Cornwall

16:41 Matt’s Apprenticeship Path

19:44 Awards and Next Steps

22:25 Apprenticeships Advice

23:42 Final Thanks

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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With the Enginuity Skills Awards coming up on the 1st July, Steph sits down with the Event Lead, Ben Hope, to find out what goes into planning this highly prestigious evening which celebrates careers and talent across the engineering and manufacturing sector. 

Now in its 12th year and with a record number of nominations, Ben tells us about the range of talents and categories which are showcased and why attending the Awards offers an opportunity to network with industry thinkers, leaders and new talent, as well as celebrate successes. 

Steph also meets this year’s host, Swarzy Shire (BBC Sounds, Radio 1/1Xtra/Radio 4) who talks about her own journey into radio and TV and why she’s excited about the Awards night. 

Tickets for the Enginuity Skills Awards are available online.

00:00 Welcome 

01:12 Award Categories and Nominations

02:52 The Importance of Sharing Finalists Stories

06:34 Behind the Scenes Behind the Scenes

07:38 Networking Tips and Confidence

10:35 Judging Process and Tickets

13:14 Meet Swarzy

13:44 Swarzy’s Radio Journey 

18:27 Preshow Rituals 

Get in touch with the podcast at [email protected]

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Recorded at the Make UK Conference at the QEII Centre in London, Steph is joined by Robert Halfon, the former MP, Skills Minister and Education Select Committee chair, who is currently Executive Director for Policy Membership and External Affairs at Make UK, and Marisa Kurimbokusto, a Chartered Engineer who was awarded ‘Young Woman Engineer of the Year’ in 2024.

Robert's extensive work on skills and apprenticeships has transformed opportunities across the UK. As Skills and Apprenticeships Minister, he changed careers advice to ensure apprenticeships were promoted in schools, launched the Skills for Life campaign and supported the development of UCAS for Apprenticeships to give apprenticeships equal status with university applications.

Marisa graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s degree in Aeronautical and Aerothermal Engineering and her career in product design and systems engineering within the automotive and power electronics industries has seen her land roles with Jaguar Land Rover, Triumph Motorcycles, Lyra Electronics and Aeristech. She’s currently Head of Engineering for the custom battery manufacturer Raeon. 

Together, Steph, Robert and Marisa discuss how to improve access to apprentices, the need to reduce red tape and increase funding, and tackling gendered stereotypes and stigma around vocational routes.

00:00 Introduction to guests

00:35 Marisa’s Engineering Journey

01:38 Robert’s Skills Mission

08:19 Gender Stereotypes in Schools

10:09 Why ‘Making’ Matters

11:46 Facing Bias and Inclusion

12:30 Women in Engineering Gains

13:02 Apprenticeships Boom

13:48 School Outreach Reality

14:39 Fixing Careers Guidance

18:53 Apprenticeships and Mobility

22:59 Removing Stigma 

26:56 Thanks and goodbye 

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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Recorded at Make UK’s National Manufacturing Conference at the QEII Centre in London, Steph welcomes Make UK CEO Stephen Phipson and Enginuity CEO and Make UK Board Member, Ann Watson, on to the podcast to discuss the UK manufacturing skills crisis and solutions.  

Stephen has spent 35 years as a leading industrial figure and has worked directly for government in a number of appointments. He tells us about Make UK’s rich history and role supporting manufacturers with services, including training and running one of the UK’s largest apprentice training centres. 

He also shares his own story of being an apprentice and the prestige it held. 

With the sector facing around 50,000 vocational vacancies and a sharp fall in engineering apprentice starts - from about 130,000 pre-2016 to 45,000 last year after the Apprenticeship Levy - Steph asks Stephen and Ann what needs to happen to ensure a future pipeline of workers in manufacturing and whether the Government is doing enough to support the industry. 

Together they discuss the challenges of an ageing workforce, SME funding and cost pressures, confusion from frequent policy changes, the need to fix Further Education provision, and improve access to levy funds.

Stephen also offers his own opinion on the role of AI and why we should remain optimistic that it will be beneficial for the sector.

00:00 Live from Make UK at the QEII Centre

00:36 Meet Make UK

01:35 Stephen’s Own Apprenticeship Story

04:10 Manufacturing Snapshot

08:28 SME Barriers And Costs

11:08 Government Solutions Push

14:29 The Need for Design & Technology in Schools

18:22 The Urgency for Joined Up Policy

20:49 AI Impact on Manufacturing

22:37 Final Thanks

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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